Archive for the ‘Teachability’ Category

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 (NIV)

Warm memories flood my mind as I think about our annual tradition of adding lights to the outside of my house growing up. Each Christmas, my brother and I would go up into the attic to retrieve the Christmas lights. We would spend hours untangling them and threading them throughout the shrubbery. Each bush would be covered in lights. We would also get up on the roof to strategically place lights along the edge of the roofline. Each year, we would add to our collection of lights. It was a blast!

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You house the Spirit of God. Your daily privilege is adding to what God has begun in your life. The faith that you were given by God to become His child and to be adopted into His family is the faith that God wants you to add to. Adorn your faith with goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Add these to your life as you would add Christmas lights to your house. These qualities are to be added to your faith by a conscious decision.

You are in the process of becoming who you are in Christ. You are in motion. You get to participate with God in your development. Be teachable. Allow God to show you areas of your life that need improvement. Cooperate with God in building you into the man or woman of God that He created you to be.

“For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”2 Peter 1:8 (NIV)

What are you adding to the temple of the Holy Spirit? You are the walking tabernacle of God’s Presence. You may be the only Jesus others see in their lifetime. What will they see? What are you becoming?

“Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:4 (NIV)

Where do you lack? That’s a personal question to say the least, but an important one to consider. God’s desire is for you to be complete, not lacking anything. One of the tools God uses is the conduit of perseverance. Why would you need to embrace perseverance? Living the Christian life in the laboratory of our fallen world demands a response. As a follower of Jesus Christ, you get to choose your response. You can persevere or you can buckle. You can breakthrough or you can break down.

Perseverance is a mark of a maturing Christian. As you mature spiritually, you learn how to respond to adversity. Your response to adversity reveals your level of spiritual maturity and develops your spiritual maturity. The process includes your teachability. What will you learn from the chisel of adversity? Will you become bitter or will you become better?

God values your maturity. God wants you to be complete. Rely on God’s power to persevere in this life. Your perseverance informs your spiritual maturity and impacts your eternity. God is building you. You are still in process! You are still on the assembly line! Be patient, God is working!

“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!”Heb 5:11-12 (NIV)

How long have you been a child of God? When did you have your conversion experience? Recount the moment you turned from your sin and confessed Jesus as Lord of your life. Now take a look at your life now compared to then. How much have you grown spiritually since the day of your salvation? What has changed over the years related to your spiritual maturity?

As you grow spiritually, you develop an appetite for the meat of God’s Word. You move from the elementary truths of God’s Word to the deeper things of God. There is a clear process of movement from milk to meat. If you have been a follower of Christ for several years, then your appetite ought to give evidence to the level of your spiritual maturity.

If you are slow to learn, then it is time to examine your level of teachability. When you are teachable, you receive, believe, and apply God’s Word. Your teachability enables you to experience progress in your spiritual journey. Feeding on God’s Word becomes a delight instead of a duty.

What is your level of spiritual maturity? What is keeping you from reaching your God-given potential? God has designed you for physical and spiritual growth.

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”Romans 8:29 (NIV)

We take comfort in knowing that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rm. 8:28). Our comfort is found in the sovereignty of God, knowing that He is on His throne and has the final say. Yet, there is more to the purposes of God than our comfort. God also treasures our conformity to Christ.

The ultimate goal for the believer is to be conformed to the image of Christ. To become like Christ requires our participation. God provides the environments and opportunities for our transformation. We get to join God in His redemptive activity. Our teachability determines the level of our conformity. Are we responsive to God’s corrective measures? Are we sensitive to God’s prompting?

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will–to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”Eph 1:4-6 (NIV)

God’s desire for us is that we operate as holy and blameless in His sight. We are clean before Him because we have received the imputed righteousness of Christ. However, there is a practical daily response to God’s work to conform us into the image of Christ.

When you stand before God one day to give an account for your life, how many adjustments will be needed in order for you to be completely like Christ?

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”Eph 4:14-15 (NIV)

Your stability is linked to your teachability.

Are you grounded in God’s Word? The anchor holds! In this life on planet earth, your faith will be challenged. Your beliefs will undergo scrutiny. The values you hold dear will be resisted. The world’s system and the anti-Christian culture will seek to dominate the landscape of your faith.

Are you able to grow spiritually in a hostile environment? You must make a decision to conform to the culture or to confront the culture. As you grow spiritually, your roots will go deeper and your stability will become more evident.

Notice that in all things you will grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. In all types of situations and scenarios, you can grow. Regardless of your current reality, you can and should grow. Maybe you are facing a challenging situation or a difficult relationship and wonder how you will grow in the midst. The good news is that God can cause you to grow through whatever you are facing. God does not waste the difficulties we face. God will bring you through at a deeper level than you entered the circumstances.

Remain teachable. Allow God to form you and fashion you through the challenges of life. Let God strengthen your resolve to remain faithful at all costs. Finish strong!

“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”Eph 4:11-13 (NIV)

Where do you fit in this picture? God has placed equippers in your life to help you develop into a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. God has placed a systematic process within the local church to promote spiritual maturity. Are you an intentional part of the process?

Take a close look at your level of participation in the life of the local church family. Are you being built up? Are you reaching unity in the faith and in the knowledge of Jesus and becoming mature? Are you attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ? What is your level of teachability?

Your spiritual maturity will be proportionate to your teachability. Are you teachable as you listen to your pastor’s message? Are you teachable as you sit under the teaching of a godly small group leader? Are you teachable as you spend time alone with God in prayer and Bible reading?

Make the most of the opportunities God has given you to grow spiritually. Maximize the moments you sit under anointed teaching from God’s Word. Move from hearing and reading God’s Word to applying God’s Word in daily living. Live out what God is depositing in you.

“Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’” Luke 23:43 (NIV)

The thief on the cross received the greatest gift of all, the gift of eternal life. In our vernacular, we would say that he was in the ninth inning with two outs and a full count. His next decision would determine his future. When the thief made the decision to turn to Christ, his forever was radically changed. Instead of going to hell, the thief, now as a newly converted child of God, went to heaven.

We rejoice in the immense mercy and grace Jesus demonstrated upon the cross for this thief. However, this thief had no time to grow spiritually and to develop his spiritual muscles. Was he authentically saved? Yes! Did he have time to develop into a mature follower of Christ? No!

Fortunately, you have the privilege of knowing Christ personally and growing in your love relationship with Him. The challenge for you is not the matter of salvation, but the matter of sanctification. Are you growing? Are you becoming who Christ made you to be? You have both the privilege and responsibility to maximize the time you have in order to grow spiritually.

What have you learned so far in your spiritual journey? Life on earth is a classroom of preparation for the life to come. How are you utilizing what God has given you with the time you have? Are you intentional about your spiritual maturation? Are you growing in your love relationship with Jesus?